HB70 Summary

• Amends Alabama mental health commitment law to replace "mentally ill" terminology with "has a mental illness" and updates related definitions for consistency throughout the Code.

• Defines "real and present threat of substantial harm to self or others" to include significant risk of serious bodily harm or inability to satisfy basic needs for nourishment, medical care, shelter, or self-protection.

• Allows law enforcement officers to deliver individuals believed to pose a real and present threat of substantial harm to designated mental health facilities for evaluation when accompanied by community mental health officers.

• Permits probate courts to commit individuals to outpatient mental health treatment when they have a mental illness, will suffer mental distress without treatment, and cannot maintain consistent voluntary engagement with outpatient services.

• Requires mental health facility directors to assess whether inpatient patients should transition to outpatient treatment within 30 days before commitment order expiration and recommend modifications to probate courts as the least restrictive alternative.